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Menu Plan Monday April 26- May 2

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We are home from the hospital! YAY! We can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s about time. Scott is still in a lot of pain from the lithotripsy and not eating a lot and I’ve had a horrible migraine for a few days, and missing a filling in my tooth! OUCH! So this weeks menu could change with our health at any moment.

Monday: Chicken Fajita Wraps
Tuesday: Hamburger Helper with garden salad
Wednesday: Grilled Chicken, Corn Casserole and salad
Thursday: Vegetable Beef Soup
Friday: Homemade Pizza (recipe soon!)
Saturday: Roast, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, mac n cheese
Sunday: Sub Sandwiches

Stick around by subscribing to my feed or Facebook “like” page, I’m going to be working on my household notebook and sharing some resources and ideas for menu planning, routines, chores and lots more!

We’ve laughed and we’ve cried

If you are unfamiliar with my marriage story thus far, I’ll just give you a brief update. On March 19th Scott, now my husband, was helping out a young mom with her car. There was gas. There was ignition. There was a trip to the ER. On March 20th we were married in a very short ceremony that my husband barely remembers because of the pain medication he was on. A few days later, my son was in the ER for dehydration and the next night my husband was admitted to the Burn Unit because his 2nd and 3rd degree burns were infected.
My husband was in a lot of pain for two weeks. The first day without pain meds, we took the kids to the river for a short ride and walk on the sand bar. It was wonderful! That night he flopped around in the bed like a fish out of water.
The kidney stone required a trip to the local ER, a CT Scan and of course….more pain medications. Um…yeah. Without really putting this into un kid friendly terms, pain meds and the pain itself have really made sure we didn’t die of consumption (you know what I mean, if you’ve ever watched Fool’s Gold, if not, drop me a line and I’ll explain in more adult terms).
I’ve cried. I’ve tried not to show how hard this has been on me. I’ve cried. We’ve argued. We’ve tried to make the best of things.
After Easter and spring break with 5 kids, we decided to make another trip to the ER , hoping to be admitted to the hospital for Lithotripsy. (Where they use sound waves to break up kidney stones small enough to pass).
We arrived at the same hospital with the Burn Unit, where we were a few weeks back. Walked in, they took him back and told him…NO UROLOGISTS HERE! We went on referral of 2 others who had their procedures done at another hospital, yet thought it was at this place. Um no.
You can only imagine his aggravation level, especially being without his pain medication since the morning before.
Now imagine when you walk up to your vehicle, get the keys out of your pocket, and realize you don’t have the right set of keys and only have an ignition key. No door key. No keyless entry. Nothing. Well, not nothing, we had a hatchet, a pipe wrench and an antennae.
That, didn’t work. Well it did, but only when the hatchet went through the driver’s side window.
*sigh*
So off to the next hospital ER. Urologist? Check! Security guard watching over our now unsafe to leave in the parking lot truck….well he was there, but no check 
Off we go. Another 2 hours of driving to change trucks, to the one that doesn’t fit in the parking garage or that I feel comfy driving with anyone else on the road beside me. Yeah, its jacked up, drives strange and we are in the downtown congested area where the streets were made for horse and buggy. Great.
More poking and prodding, x-rays and CT Scans were made.
When my husband was called back to the ER for the final “ I’m gonna get to see a doctor, trip to the back, not just for them to him a cup and tell him where the restroom is” trip, we were put into triage, where they pretty much treat the worse case first. Apparently my husband’s illness wasn’t as bad as others, or something. After about 30 minutes of trying to sit on a very very squeaky, slippery stool we started hearing voices.
The nurse was asking the man 2 beds down from us about his symptoms and such. Hearing voices was the one of the main ones that concerned me and my husband, along with schizophrenia, drinking a case of bear plus ½ to 1 gallon of whiskey a day! Within minutes, he was out of there, no doctors talked to him…nothing. Quite interesting while it lasted though. The voices were having fun with him is all I’m saying. And a very important part of this story is that he was moved to the 2nd floor. Remember this 2nd Floor is the psych ward, mmm-kay?
So the doctor comes in. Cool guy really. I liked him a lot. He drew pictures before the night was over and used the words “Tool” and “Johnson”. Not sure what he was talking about, but I don’t think those are medical terms for parts of the anatomy. Wish I would have kept the pictures he drew to show you guys, really…it was fun. Anyways the best part was that my husband was on pain meds from that point. He slept a couple hours, and I watched cable! George Lopez rocks!
Well that’s until we turned the boob tube off. Paramedics brought in this guy that had been working on the hospital cafeteria. He’d collapsed outside. Yeah they called and ambulance to take him about 100 feet to the ER. He needed that.
The man came in talking, answering questions. They asked his name over and over, he answered or his boss answered. The 57 year old man named Mike answered the first 5 didgets of his social security number with no problem, but the last 4 he hesitated. Started moaning in pain. Then we heard the doctor telling him calmly to be still and breathe normally because he was having a heart attack.
About 6-8 feet from our “room” that had curtain walls. A man was having a heart attack.
There was moaning, running, nurses and doctors calling out orders, repeating themselves.
“5,000 volts, clear”
In about 25 minutes from the time the man entered the ER. The man had electricity run through his body 4 times.
We heard it
We felt it…in our hearts.
We prayed and tried to keep each other calm and not cry, especially when we heard…

“Oh God!………..I’m going!….I’m going!…..I’m going!….”

The pumping of his heart, the blood splattering, machines moved in and out, carts moved around, footsteps of at least 10 people…..the sounds….of a man in so much pain….he died.
Time of death was called. Prayers were lifted to our Lord for his soul, his wife that could not be reached and his daughter.
You never know do you? All of our discussions later came around to his salvation. In 57 years, did this man take Jesus as his savior? In the last moments of his life, he was calling his name but….

Hours went by.
Finally we were being moved upstairs. A urologist would be up to see us by 7am. I jokingly told Scott that I’d arranged to have him placed in a special room, with pillows all over the walls. Ha! He laughed! The orderly didn’t…I didn’t notice it at the time at all.
We were on a strange hallway. There were a lot of smaller nurses stations. Hmm…maybe they changed things but more nurses is a good thing, right? Around the corner, down a bit and a sharp turn into a room that looked like the burn unit wound care rooms, or those special rooms on House with the glass wall so ur like a fish in a fishtank and everyone can see you.
Except there was more stuff in there, crammed stuff. It was so small. Like the size of my largest, but still small bathroom. My husband asked where the potty was, and the metal toilet was pointed out…that you pull out under the sink.
Talk about a bad feeling when you have to poop!
Of course he let his feelings be known that he needed a bathroom, a real one, and soon. The new nurse said there was a public toilet down the hallway, and something about that Mr. I hear voices from the ER was his new neighbor! WHAT!
Our “special” room was for those “crazies” that like to hop out of bed all the time. That was almost a direct quote from the night nurse. Um yeah….he was in a “special room”!!!!
So we were being moved, to a better room on the hallway within 5 minutes. Great thing I tell you! Great thing!
He walked out to find a more private potty, then the nurse came to show me to our new room.
I walked in. Put my things away. Scott was down the hall at the public potty, so I was gonna run potty myself.
You know how you have those flashes of ideas? No? well I do. A picture of a “crazy person” crouched down in our bathroom hiding from the nurses was all that I could see.
I just knew that would never happen, right?!!!
I opened the door and….
A BIG HAIRY, NAKEY MAN WAS SITTING ON THE POTTY!!!
OK, now I’ll tell you that the room I’d told my husband about was a joke, I was teasing him. When I thought that the man in the ER wasn’t just kidding around and really had Schizophrenia, I was just guessing…thinking how weird would that be. When Mike was coding, I thought ….what if….nah!
Seriously, I had to do a double take! The BIG HAIRY NAKED MAN SITTING ON THE POTTY, looked at me. I looked at him. He was kinda crouched over so I didn’t see HIM, but I was only about 2 feet away from him at this point.
The man said “Do you mind?!”
I closed the door….and cracked up! I was crying I was laughing so hard!
My husband was told what room to go to first, before I got there without my knowledge. There were no locks on the door of course…it’s the Psych floor…
He didn’t think it was quite as funny as I did, but it was funny.
****************************************************************************
Sometimes you have to laugh at all the things going wrong in your life. I know that I do, if I didn’t…..2nd floor here I come.
Friday morning at 10:30 they are gonna blow his stone to bits…I hope. I really pray we are at home safe and in no pain in a day or two. I’ll let you know. In the mean time, don’t listen to those voices in your head, especially if they tell you there is a crazy person in your bathroom….
The saga continues…..

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Scott!

Today my husband is in the hospital with kidney stones. Right now we are getting ready to go downstairs to have them burst to bits by some fairly cool sound wave technology.

they are here…bye!

**********************************************************************************************************

He’s out, and doing better. He is in pain, but he’s dressed, walking around and ready to leave. Now for lunch and home!

Vinyl Banner Giveaway

Large Format Posters have teamed up and given us yet another great giveaway! This one is great for just about anyone. If you do yard sales, craft shows, VBS, sporting events, fund raisers just about anything, you can use this 24×36 Vinyl Banner.

Details:

Giveaway Prize: (1) 24×36 Vinyl Banner w/ Grommets Shipping

FREE UPS Ground Shipping Eligibility: Limited to US Residents only

You should be 18 or older to be eligible.

How you can win:

• Comment with your top reason of needing and electronic home planner (1 entry)

• For extra entries you can follow me (by mail, in your reader, Google Friend Connect, Facebook Fan page or Networked Blogs) each one earns 1 additional entry

Giveaway will be closed at Midnight CST on April 30th. I will announce the winner that next wee.

Be sure to tell your family and friends about the great giveaway too! I hope that I see yall soon!

**The opinions in this post are 100% my own**

No Bake Cookie Recipe

Recently I had a friend looking for this recipe, and its been shared with quite a few since then so I thought that I would share it here. It’s been called a lot of things, No Bake Cookies or Boiled Cookies are the two names that I’ve known for a long time. The great thing is, its simple and wonderful, and very forgiving.

BLIS Winner!

After waiting a full 3 minutes and 12 seconds Random.org helped me pic a winner of the Blis Giveaway. Thanks to all of those who visited from UBP10 I enjoyed reading your blogs, and your comments, I hope that you join my more seasoned readers for the long haul as there are lots of things coming up that’s gonna be so much fun (I”ll be starting a new giveaway within days, AND I have a series of homeschooling guest posts coming up! I’m so excited, aren’t you?!)

So the winner is : Stephanie I also subscribe via email

Congratulations, Stephanie! Please contact me via the contact button at the top of the page so that I can hook you up!

Hurry! Only 4 hours left!

Don’t forget to enter in the my BLIS Giveway. The giveaway closes at midnight so that one more person will be enjoying such a wonderful organizational tool. Boy I’m so jealous already!

Stay tuned for another giveaway starting soon, and a series about homeschooling from homeschooling mom’s that are all at different points in their homeschooling “career”. I can’t wait to share their stories with you.

Hot Dog Chili Recipe

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hormel Foods. All opinions are 100% mine.

I was just thinking the other day how a friend of mine would bring this Hormel chili and Velveeta cheese dip to school all the time. We ate it with tortilla chips, and the huge bowl would be gone in about 10 minutes. It was a favorite at all of our class parties. She even brought it to get-togethers we had over spring break.

This week the kids have been out of school for Spring Break. Its not been real eventful, but we needed some down time. Its warming up, so of course its time to fire up the grill. Most of my readers know that we grill a lot year round. There’s lots of grilled chicken, burgers and my son’s favorite grilled burgers with Hormel Chili.

It took a while for me to get him to eat hot dogs. Most kids like them, and for some reason he would eat hot dogs at my aunt’s house but no where else. So one day I asked her what she was doing to get him to eat on hot dog night. This is the quick recipe she gave me :

hormel

Springtime Sewing Projects List

I’ve wanted to get out my sewing machine lately and make things that are useful. The girls have outgrown most of their summer clothes, if not all of them. I’d love to have some summer tops and skirts myself. Aprons! I find that I get a lot more done when I’m wearing an apron, but what I have is plain jane! I want something that stands out in the crowd of my lonely home! hehehe! On top of that, I have friends that have asked for aprons too, so maybe I can gift them something cute. Curtains…I need curtains for my kitchen, recover some chair seat and such too. So on to the linky love!

• Wouldn’t this twirly skirt be so cute for the girls?! Could I wear it too I wonder?
• I love these dresses, and have made them for myself in the past, but the fabric was pre-made with the stretchy stuff at the top. So comfy!
• This is the cutest Halter Top Apron, don’t ya think? and oooh la la
• Something simple like this is what I want for my over the kitchen sink window.
• A coordinating shade for the bay window in the kitchen to block out the glare during daytime movies would be great
• Painting some dining room chairs that will be mismatched and recovering the seats is a must!

Do you have any sewing projects that you want to finish before summer too? Any great tutorials or patterns to recommend, ’cause I’m always looking for something new.

It’s Party Time! Blis Giveaway (worth $125)

Thanks for coming, sit a spell and I’ll whip up one of my famous Chocolate Pound Cakes for y’all!

It’s that time again! I totally spaced last year, and missed UBP9. Well I didn’t space, I was working on a new blog and thought it wasn’t a good time to get traffic to one that was about to be obsolete, kwim? Now that I think of it, so much has happened in the last year. I fell in love, got married went from a family of 4 , 1 dog and 1 cat, to a family of 7 with 4 dogs and 1 cat.  Warmer weather is coming up, and as long as there are no more injuries, sickies or who knows what else, we will be spending a lot of time at the lake and the river here soon.

You can read more about me under the About page at the top. I will soon have a monthly “column” at  Sensational Divas Review and  will be blogging a little more at Eat Sweat Lose.

For a few of my most popular articles you can read:

• Top 10 Simple Living Blogs
• Handmade Gift Ideas for Women
• Clutter Free Gift Ideas
• Inside Black Apple – Brownies
• The Summer Head Cold – Tomato Tea

It’s Giveaway Time!

Now on for the giveaway! I know that’s why you are here, that’s ok I still love you.  Over the last couple months I’ve talked to the creators of Blis (Best life information system) about doing a review and giveaway. Life, specifically wedding, interrupted. So here we are with a fabulous offer!

I have been searching for an electronic Control Journal/Household Planner for years. Let me tell you, there’s just not anything out there that puts everything together on one page….until now! Blis has it all! I can access it from anywhere, it doesn’t need to be loaded to one computer…I can login from my phone! and there is a print version! How about that!

Just because I think you should know, here are some details:

• Full Calendar with Day, Week + Month Views
• Email Reminders
• Create, Edit + Save To Do Lists
• Plan + Save Vacation Details
• Plan + Save Party Details
• Easily Link To Websites
• Menu Planning + Grocery Lists
• Electronic Recipe Box Storage
• Track Online Purchases
• List Gifts To Purchase
• Organize Household Contact Information
• List Emergency Information
• Record Home Inventory Room By Room
• Maintain Household Appliance Records
• Record Home Updates + Repair Information
• List Service Provider Information